Day 1 – Reflections on Islam – Special Ramadan 2023 Daily Radio/Livestream Program

03 23 23'

Written by HiMY SYeD

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Alhumdulillah,

This First full day of Fasting in Ramadan 2023 is in The Books.

InshAllah, this day is written in our Good Books.

Like in previous years of blogging 30 Masjids in 30 Days of Ramadan,

We’re making at least one daily stop listening to Ezz E. Gad host Reflections on Islam Special Ramadan Radio Program…

I was wondering how many times I’ve broken my fast and blogged about it while listening to Reflections on Islam Radio and now looking at the following list, I’m sort of surprised…

There’s a gap for a few years.

During Ramadan 2016, I was travelling from Coast to Coast breaking fast in 30 Masjids in 30 Days in Canada.

Ramadans 2017 and 2018 I was in British Columbia blogging 30 Masjids in 30 Days around Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

Re-reading those previous entries one after another we can glimpse how important Reflections on Islam’s annual Ramadan Radio Program has been within Ramadan Culture for Muslims in Toronto and later on throughout Ontario.

During Ramadan 2011, it indeed was an over the air Radio broadcast from an A.M. Station in Niagara Falls.

By Ramadan 2013, it was off the air, yet having performed a digital Hijrah to the internet, Reflections On Islam Ramadan Radio Program remained on the air transformed into an online daily Livestream.

One benefit of migrating from a radio station time slot to their own website comes to mind.

Because the program is broadcast one half before Maghrib Sunset Time, every day the starting time on the air would change and not be fixed.

I recall at least on one occasion the Radio Station played the recorded program at the wrong time.

If memory serves, there was one time they re-played another day’s program or played the daily program out of order according to the 30 Days of Ramadan.

The decision to migrate from A.M. Radio to Digital Online Livestreams puts Reflections On Islam in its own house where they own all technical and timing decisions.

Alas, some Rogers customers in Ontario remain stuck with a Rogers’ out-of-province IP Address… and still can’t listen to the Livestream.

Livestreams remain geo-locked to Ontario based IP Addresses.

This year I realized that Reflections On Islam has started a Youtube Channel with 48 episodes available so far.

That’s a big deal for those of us who grew up watching weekly shows and sometimes being sad when we missed them.

The Television Program is still broadcast thrice weekly on VisionTV in Canada:

Fridays – 3:30 a.m.
Saturdays – 7:00 a.m.
Sundays – 11:00 a.m.

New episodes are broadcast on Saturday mornings then rerun Sunday morning.

It used to be that Friday’s Tahajjud timeslot would replay the episode broadcast the previous weekend.

Lately, I haven’t watched the Friday broadcast to confirm if this is still being done.

A number of times if I missed either of the Weekend shows, I made a very early Friday morning effort to wake up and watch it before Fajr, or after Fajr, depending on the time of year.

You can read a little more about the history of Reflections on Islam in my post from Day 11 of Ramadan 2020 written during first Ramadan of the Pandemic.